


Fire Resistance

by nana_writes



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Branding, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Interrogation, Tieflings, Torture, Whump, dnd, tied-up, torturer pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-13 16:36:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18944758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nana_writes/pseuds/nana_writes
Summary: Aeleine, a half-elf torturer with ceaseless curiosity, gets her hands on a tiefling subject for the first time ever.TW: torture (no explicit descriptions)(disclaimer: aeleine is my character, dnd belongs to Wizards of the Coast; this is a low-magic universe)





	Fire Resistance

**Author's Note:**

> TW: references to previous torture; references to further torture with fire/branding; injuries described  
> first time publishing any whump so be nice to me!

Aeleine caught the bag of gold the Lord threw her way, weighing it. It felt about right, though she would make sure to count it later.

"Thank you, Aeleine. Reliable as always. You may leave now. Guards, get rid of him."

"My Lord if I may," the man nodded for her to continue "if you are done with him" she inclined her head towards the prisoner within the jail, tone of voice very much implying she knew he was going to kill him "I'd love a couple more hours with him."

"Why?"

"First time I've gotten to experience with a tiefling, that's all."

The Lord seemed to ponder his decision for a minute. "I don't see what else the scoundrel could really give you, but any interesting juicy bits pass them on. Otherwise, he's all yours. Jeremiah," he called, turning to one of his guards "Make sure Aeleine has everything she needs and dispose of the body after the fact."

The guard in question looked down at Aeleine, who flashed him a sharp grin. He squirmed in place.  _ Good _ , she thought.

"Keys." She asked, hand out. Jeremiah looked at his partner, who clearly seemed to think the guard's fear of Aeleine was absolutely unfounded. The second guard rolled his eyes and brushed past Aeleine to open the door himself. She let that go, though part of her brain was considering how to make him afraid of her - she much preferred Jeremiah's reaction.

"Get me some fire in here please, a torch or two."

"I thought you pointy-ears could see fine in the dark" the second guard, Marcus she thought, sneered.

"Who said it was to see." She answered, deadpan. Then, she turned to the guard and called forth the dragon's aura that lived in her heart "and watch your tongue or you might end up on that chair next." The magic didn't seem to take hold, which was annoying, but her words and threat where enough that some of the colour seemed to drain out of his face. It was alright, he would have to stay and watch. She would see how he felt about her then. With an angelic smile, she turned back towards the cell.

"Those lights please!" She called out once more, before bringing a chair to rest in front of the prisoner. She gingerly lifted the rough sack that had been put over his head when she'd been done with him.

He blinked twice, his eyes adjusting to the dim light. They quickly zero'ed on Aeleine, now straddling a chair across from him.

"Why are you back. You got what you wanted." He spat.

"No, he got what he wanted." Aeleine clarified. She made an effort to keep her voice kind as she asked: "How are you doing?"

She lifted a hand to tilt his chin, looking at the bruise that was blooming there. Not her doing, brute force was way too crude a method in her opinion. "Tsk, they shouldn't have done that to you."

The tiefling looked utterly confused "You're fucking weird, you know that."

Aeleine didn't answer, reaching for the rag and bucket of water someone had left on the side of the room. She wet the rag and brought it up to the tiefling's face, cleaning the blood left there, probably from when he'd been caught. She hadn't done that either. His hands though...

He was a thief, she was surprised they hadn't just handed him to her with his knuckles already broken off one by one.

"What are you doing?" He asked, in confusion.

"Iago yes?" the tiefling nodded. That was something she already knew anyways, she already knew way more than that, stuff he should not have said, stuff that was going to get his crew caught or killed. He wasn't going to survive this either, he had to know. She hated it when they knew that, made her job so much harder.

The tiefling grew somber again.

"What are you doing?" He repeated, more forceful, this time actually attempting to move away from her ministrations.

"I'm just making sure you're alright."

"Why? You put most of these wounds there yourself."

She moved on to his chest now "I know. Hazards of the job. Agrammon wanted a lot from you." She felt him tense further at the mention of the Lord, of the torture he'd endured and the information he'd spilled. "I just want to make sure you're not dying on me just yet."

Iago still looked confused "I know they are going to kill me so what, I'm to be made an example of in the stocks tomorrow?"

"No." Aeleine answered. "At least, I don't think so. Agrammon doesn't need it known he was stolen from."

"So what."

"You still have so much left to tell me."

He struggled against his bonds, the chains around his wrists and ankles rattling against the wooden chair. "No, no, I told you everything I know."

And oh, that was panic in his voice.

She waited for him to calm down once more, before continuing with the rag down his neck and chest. The blood - his, of course - had cacked and dried in places already, so she had to rub a couple of times before she was able to get most of it off. He'd been handed to her shirtless but with his pants on, and so she had ended up straying away from his legs & tail. She moved on to his hands next.

He would probably never regain full control of his digits, even if they healed up properly. Only healing magic would probably do him any good, and Aeleine had yet to meet someone who could do that. She picked up his hand gingerly, Iago watching her with apprehension, expression already showing the pain he must have been ignoring, as she carefully cleaned them up of blood and dirt.

"There." she announced once she was done with both hands, putting the rag and bucket away. The water was now murky with his sweat and blood, not that it had been that clean to start with. If he were to live past tomorrow, his wounds were probably going to infect. Good thing that wasn't going to be an issue then.

Aeleine walked back to her chair and prisoner. She traced a line down his torso, fingers ghosting over the handful of blade marks left there hours ago. A particularly deep one, high on his chest, was still open, though most had started to close already. She skimmed the edges of it, then once more over it, pressing down slightly. Iago hissed.

"I can't do anything about that see, I don't have any healing magic..."

The tiefling tensed for a split second, so quick Aeleine might have missed it if she hadn't been looking for it.

"Magic doesn't exist" he lied, voice mocking. It was a good lie too, but Aeleine was paying close enough attention to hear the slight hitch in his breath as he tried to keep his voice even, his derision true.

"Yeah, it does. And you know it, tieflings are magical after all."

A snort of disbelief "Next you're going to tell me the dust from my bones cures the Weep, and that red tiefling horns can be used to conduct powerful love potions."

"No, of course not. Those are silly superstitions. And anyways, I suspect if any of those old wives rumours were true, they would be linked to whose infernal heritage you share, not your skin colouring."

"You're crazy. Magic doesn't exist."

"Maybe I'm crazy" Aeleine pondered, before placing her hand just above his wrist. She willed the electricity to curse through her, watched the sparks run down her arm and into the tiefling. He screamed, and she pondered, slightly too late, that she should have given him something to bite on - she still needed his tongue to stay intact. "Maybe nothing happened right now."

"What can you do?" Aeleine repeated, and she could hear more than feel the warmth leave her voice, the impatience creep in.

He was breathing heavy and she didn't fully hear what he murmured in infernal, nor would she have been able to understand it, but she got the gist of it. He lifted his head up from where it had lulled onto his chest and yup, that was hate in his eyes staring back at her, beads of sweat forming once more at his hairline. He wouldn't be telling her anything more, her own observations would have to suffice today.

"Oh well, don't tell me then. Maybe you'll show me later." she reached for the dagger on her waistband and ignored the rattling of the chains as she brought it up to his thigh. She placed a hand on his knee for support and warned "Stay still or this will go deeper than intended and hurt a whole lot more" before cutting through his trousers. She sliced around both his legs, leaving barely anything of the cloth left, only just enough to cover his private bits. Both his thighs had managed to remain unscathed during the whole sequence of events, making them the perfect expanse of skin for her to test her theories on.

While she'd been cleaning him up someone had come and placed a torch inside, on one of the wall loops made just for that. She stepped out of the cell and turned to one of the guards. "Jeremiah, give me one of those crossbow bolts please."

"Why?" Marcus asked, as his partner complied without question. Seeing her chance, she took it, turning to him with a smile as she was handed the bolt by Jeremiah.

"If you want to know, you're welcome to come in and watch. If you think you can handle it."

Aeleine heard him grumble behind her about how she thought she was all that when she was nothing more than any other sellsword, but she ignored him as she wandered back to the cell. Approaching the torch, she lifted the arrow to the flame, watching it's metal tip grow warm.

"See," she explained, to both the tiefling and the guard who had now come to stand inside "Everyone knows tieflings are resistant to fire. It's their infernal blood and all that. But I'm curious. Is it a skin thing? If they were to be hurt subdermally, how would that manifest? And is their resistance to fire or to all heat in general? Does the source or cause matter?"

Marcus was staring at her in half-boredom, half-confusion, not seemingly understanding were her ramblings were going. Iago, on the other hand, had a look of dawning realisation washing over his face.

She grinned, removing the bolt from the flame, the metal now bright red. "Let's find out shall we?"

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed that! if you wanna know more about aeleine or ask me any questions you can find me at nana-writes.tumblr.com


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